Double action nut huller



y 1939- w. c. ANDERSON 2,159,307

DOUBLE ACTION NUT HULLER Filed Dec. 13, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet l Egii INVENTOR W 67765. Anderson y 1939- w. cv ANDERSON DOUBLE ACTION NUT HULLER Filed Dec. 13, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 14467755. Anderson GU? .mmmsc ATTORN EY Patented May 23, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 9 Claims.

This invention relates to walnut hullers, and particularly represents improvements over the huller shown in my copending application Serial No. 141,594, filed May 10, 1937.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a huller of the general form above identified having all the advantages thereof but which has far greater capacity, with no increase in floor space or height, and with little increase in power necessary for its operation.

The above object I accomplish by means of such structure and relative arrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the following specification and claims.

In the drawings similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several views:

Figure 1 is a side view of my improved huller, partly in section.

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the upper hulling unit.

Figure 3 is a similar view of the lever unit.

Referring now more particularly to the characters of reference on the drawings, the general construction of the apparatus, and of the upper hulling unit, is the same as that of the machine shown and described in said copending application.

The upper hulling unit comprises a circular horizontal hulling plate I, provided with a depending central skirt 2 surrounding a circular passage 3, and having radial hull discharging slots 4, outwardly of the skirt. The plate is surrounded by a deep upstanding band 5. The casing is rigidly connected to and supported a suitable distance from the floor by legs 6 disposed 90 apart.

A rotary brush, here shown as being of the same nature and construction as that of said other application, is disposed in the casing and includes a head or backing disc unit I some distance below the top of the band 5, and steel bristles 8 depending from the disc outwardly of the passage 3 only. The disc unit is nearly the same diameter as the band 5, and the bristles extend as close to the periphery of the disc as is practicable.

The brush is mounted on a central hub 9 slidably splined for vertical adjustment on a vertical drive shaft lfi, which extends above the brush some distance and also downwardly through passage 3. At its upper end, the shaft enters a legsupported gear box I l where it is operatively connected to an electric motor l2 mounted on the 55 box. The brush is adjusted on its shaft to alter the spacing thereof from the hulling plate I by means of a diametral yoke bar l3 engaging a collar turnable on the hub 9. One end of the bar is supported by one leg 6 while the other end is connected to a vertically adjustable rod l4.

Fixed on and upstanding from the plate I are a plurality of circumferentially spaced diverter bars I5. These extend from the peripheral wall 5 to the edge of the central passage 3, and are concavely curved relative to the direction of rotation of the brush. They are also disposed so as to extend forwardly about the plate some distance from their outer ends or so that their outer and inner ends are substantially apart circumferentially of the plate. The brush is set to clear the bars an amount determined by the size of the nuts being hulled, the distance between plate I and the bristles being always less than the smallest dimension of an unhulled nut.

The disc unit 1 is cut away peripherally at a number of circumferentially spaced points for a depth of several rows of bristles to form nut intake openings N5, of suflicient size to pass a quantity of nuts at one time. The side wall band 5, at a point above the highest level of adjustment of the brush disc i, is provided with a circumferential feed opening ll which communicates with the upwardly sloping bottom of a supply hopper l8.

The nuts from the hopper are thus delivered onto the top of the rotating brush disc 1, whose rotation causes the nuts to be thrown centrifugally against the side wall 5. The nuts are then in position to drop through the various openings l6 as the latter pass under the relatively slow moving nuts. The nuts then enter the hulling chamber below the brush where they are scrubbed or abraded by the brush and slotted hulling plate while being rotated about the plate by the revolving brush. At the same time the nuts are of course sooner or later engaged by the diverter bars I 5 and conveyed radially inward of the plate to the central discharge passage 3.

Due to the use of a plurality of the intake openings IS, a large quantity of nuts may be simultaneously and continuously passed into the hulling chamber for action. Due to the relatively short diverter bars, the nuts are not retained in the hulling chamber for any great length of time, so that even with a relatively great and continuous flow of nuts from the hopper, a similar flow from the hulling chamber is assured without any likelihood of said chamber becoming clogged.

This rapid flow of the nuts through this chamber of the machine however has a tendency to prevent positive hulling of all the nuts, and the central transfer passage or chamber 3 therefore delivers the nuts to a lower hulling unit constructed as follows: Secured on the shaft I10 just below the bottom of the skirt 2 is a disc l9 substantially the same size as plate I, and forming the backing of a rotary brush which comprises depending bristles 20 of the same type and mounting as those of the upper brush. The disc I9 is provided with diametrally opposed nut intake openings 2| registering with the passage 3, the bristles being of course removed for the area of these openings.

Mounted below and concentric with the brush is a hulling plate 22 provided with radial hull discharge openings 23, said plate at the center having a ball bearing 13 for the shaft through which the latter is slidable. An upstanding side wall 24 is fixed with the plate and extends to adjacent the level of the brush disc l9. This wall has a relatively large opening 25 on one side forming a nut disohargepassage. The plate and side wall unitwhich forms the lower hulling chamber-is held against rotation by brackets 26 clamped against the legs 6 for vertical adjustment, while the unit is supported for vertical. adjustment by a number of vertically adjustable bolts. 21 mounted in the horizontal base beams 28 on which the legs: are mounted.

To prevent nuts from collecting at the center of the plate 22, out of the sphere of action of the brush, I shut off the central area of the plate by means of a sleeve 29 depending from the brush disc concentric therewith and just inwardly of openings 2!, and slidably cooperating with another sleeve 30' upstanding from the plate '22. Some of the hulls broken away from the nuts in the upper hulling chamber drop through slots 4 and fall onto the revolving brush disc l9. These hulls are then engaged by a stationary tangential deflector 3'! extending from adjacent the skirt 2 to one of the legs 6, which cause the hulls to slide off the disc and onto the floor to one side of the machine. a

The nuts dropping through the brush openings 2! from the passage 3 of the upper hull-ing unit are received on the plate 22, and are of course engaged by the brush and subjected to a hulling action while being rolled and moved about the plate. Whatever hull pieces from the upper unit have passed through passage 3 into the lower hulling unit, together withthe majority of the hull pieces removed from the nutsby the hulling action in the lower unit, drop through the slots23 clear of the machine. a

The opening 25 from the lower hulling chamber delivers into a horizontal washing and sepa rating cylinder 32 of suitable type, which extends radially from the hulling machine and isdriven from the motor l2. In order to assure discharge of the nutsinto the cylinder from the lower hulling chamber after the nuts have been acted upon a sufficient time for thorough hulling, a diverter bar 33 is mounted on the hulling plate 22. This bar extends in curving relation about the plate in the direction of rotation of the brush for substantially three quarters of a turn, from adjacent the sleeve 38 to a termination at the far side of discharge opening 25.

Any hulls which may not discharge through slots- 23 and are carried into the washing cylinder,

of course fall therefrom before the nuts reach the outlet end of the cylinder.

The transfer passage 3 'is of sufiicient size relative tothe upper hulling chamber to insure a free flow from the latter without possibility of choking. Also the hulling capacity of the lower hulling chamber is greater than that of the upper chamber, so that a continuous flow of nuts through the machine is assured without any danger of possible clogging or restriction of the flow at any point between the initial feeding in of the nuts and their final discharge to the wash from the spirit of the invention, as defined by the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim. as new and useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A walnut huller comprising a circular hulling chamber having. a horizontal floor provided with a central nut discharge opening and hull dischargeslots outwardly of the opening, a rotary vertical-axis brush dependinginto the chamber to engage and hull nuts therein, means to feed nuts. ontothe floor adjacent the periphery thereof and at a plurality of spaced points simultaneo-usly, and a plurality of. circumferentially spaced diverter bars upstanding from the floor and extending inwardly from the periphery thereof to the central opening.

2. A walnut huller comprising acircular hullingchamber having a horizontal floor provided with a central nut discharge opening and hull discharge slots outwardly of the opening, a skirt about and depending from the opening and formlower hulling chamber below the skirt having a.

side outlet for nuts, hulling means in the lower chamber including a vertical axis brush having a head disc disposed just below the skirt, saidv disc having nut intake openings therethrough within the area of the opening defined by the skirt, and means in the lower chamber to divert nuts as they are hulled toward said side outlet.

3. A walnut huller comprising a circular hulling chamber having a horizontal floor provided with a central nut discharge opening and. hull discharge slots: outwardly of the opening, a skirt about and depending from the opening and. forming a passage, hulling means in the chamber including a. vertical axis brush, a vertical drive shaft for said brush depending through the passage, a lower hulling chamber below the skirt having a side outlet for nuts, hulling means in the the lower end of the passage and means in the "lower chamber to divert nuts as they are hulled toward said side outlet.

4. A structure as in claim 3, with means to adjust. the first named brush vertically on the shaft and separate means to adjust the lower chamber vertically relative to the corresponding 5; A structure as in claim 2, in which the bulls from the floor-slots of the upper chamber drop onto the brush disc and the latter is of a size relative to the lower chamber to prevent such hulls from dropping into said lower chamber.

6. A structure as in claim 2, in which the hulls from the floor-slots of the upper chamber drop onto the brush disc and the latter is of a size relative to the lower chamber to prevent such hulls from dropping into said lower chamber with means functioning with the rotation of the brush disc to cause hulls thereon to be swept off the same.

'7. A walnut huller comprising a circular hulling chamber having a horizontal floor slotted for the discharge of hulls and a side wall provided with a side outlet for the discharge of hulled nuts, a rotary brush depending into the chamber and including a horizontal head-disc, a vertical nutfeed passage member overhanging the disc, the latter having a nut intake opening in the plane of the passage area and offset from the axis of the disc, the bristles of the brush extending to the inner edge of the opening whereby the nuts dropping through the opening from the passage will be directly engaged by said bristles, and means in the chamber to divert nuts as rotated thereabout and hulled by the brush toward the side outlet.

8. A structure as in claim 7, in which said last named means comprises a continuous diverter bar upstanding from the floor and curving about the floor in the direction of rotation of the brush with an increasing radius from a point inwardly of the vertical plane of the disc opening to a termination adjacent the far side of the side outlet.

9. A walnut huller comprising a circular hulling chamber having a floor arranged for the gravity discharge of hulls and a side wall provided with an outlet for hulled nuts, a rotary brush depending into the chamber and including a horizontal head disc, a nut-feed passage overhanging the disc centrally thereof, the disc having a nut intake opening in the plane of the passage area and offset from the axis of the disc, means in the chamber to divert nuts as hulled toward the outlet, means to relatively adjust the chamber floor and brush vertically, a circular band depending centrally from the disc radially inward from the disc opening, and a similar band upstanding from the floor and slidably engaging the first named band.

W. CHARLES ANDERSON. 

